Momenta Ventures has closed an investment in Kolmostar, a positioning technology company revolutionizing GPS positioning algorithms to achieve ultra-low power and high precision positioning. Kolmostar’s proprietary GNSS baseband signal processing engine can enable up to 100x reduced power consumption in IoT devices in addition to improved positioning accuracy. Momenta joins Boston-based venture firm Ab Initio Capital, Frees Fund, Eastern Bell Venture Capital and StarVC as investors in the Series-A round.
Kolomostar’s flagship JEDI-100 is an ultra-low power consumption product. Its reduced level of power capabilities enables a whole range of new possibilities in location-based services (LBS) without the need of frequent recharges or a large battery, which often becomes a leading factor prohibiting IoT deployments at a larger scale.
The JEDI-100 works with any LoRa-enabled devices and increases accuracy of LoRa-enabled positioning by at least 10x. The signal processing engine enables greater positioning accuracy in notoriously difficult urban canyon settings, making LBS applications such as asset tracking, mobile commerce and automotive navigation in metropolitan areas more feasible. Unlike conventional assisted-GPS (A-GPS) technologies, Kolmostar’s technology reduces the need for multiple network gateways to gain an accurate position. This makes applications in rural areas with limited network coverage possible.
Kolmostar’s second product, expected to be released later this year, will be a centimeter-level accurate positioning device focused on autonomous vehicles. This device focuses on solving the industry pain point of urban high precision positioning in a robust and economical fashion enabling autonomous car applications in harsh metropolitan areas where such services will be most needed.
Accurate & low-power geolocation is a significant leap forward in fundamental enabling technology for LoRa-enabled applications. With LPWAN technologies significantly reducing the power consumption for radio communication in IoT end devices, the ability to accurately track devices without significantly decreasing their battery life further enables new possibilities to track cars, construction equipment, supply chain goods, people, bikes, scooters and more. Kolmostar is already working with industry leaders and ecosystem partners to integrate their positioning technology into IoT devices.
Lee Carter, Principal with Momenta Ventures notes: “Kolmostar provides an important enabling technology to the LPWAN ecosystem. Previously, highly-accurate tracking devices could only be on for days at a time. Kolmostar’s technology enables these devices to be on for months to even years giving rise to a proliferation of new LPWAN location-based applications.”
This investment is one of the first out of Momenta Ventures’ LPWAN Ecosystem Fund, intended to accelerate innovative industry solutions powered by Low Power Wide Area Networks with a focus on open standards and ecosystems such as LoRaWAN™. Investors of this fund are strategic stakeholders in the LPWAN ecosystem.
Tao Tong, Co-Founder of Kolmostar adds: “Kolmostar is very happy to receive investment from Momenta, who is a leading investor and ecosystem enabler in the IoT LPWAN space, even more so now with its newly launched LPWAN Ecosystem Fund. Being one of the first investments out of this fund signifies the ecosystem’s recognition of Kolmostar’s revolutionary positioning technology and its potential to enable more LBS applications in IoT, autonomous cars and beyond. We look forward to working with Momenta to further enable the success of the entire LPWAN ecosystem.”
About Kolmostar
Kolmostar is a positioning technology company that is reinventing the industry’s GNSS (GPS, Beidou, etc) positioning approach to achieve ultra-low-power (sub-mW) and high-precision (centimeter-level) positioning in harsh metropolitan environments for Internet of Things devices and autonomous vehicles. Kolmostar’s solutions integrate advanced silicon technology, cutting-edge high-dimension statistical signal processing, as well as high-performance cloud computing to reduce GNSS sensors’ positioning errors and power consumption, making centimeter-accurate position services universally accessible for billions of humans and intelligent machines. For more information, please visit www.kolmostar.com.
__________
Momenta Partners encompasses leading Strategic Advisory, Talent, and Investment practices. We’re the guiding hand behind leading industrials’ IoT strategies with over 200+ IoT leadership placements and 25+ young IoT disruptors. Momenta Ventures doesn’t just finance companies; we help founders achieve lean, smart and sustained growth driving to an orchestrated and valuable exit.
Schedule a call to learn more about our Digital Industry Venture practice.
